For example, I think its quite possible to “read” the trailer as the story of how the economically privileged are incapable of dealing with even the slightest of difficulties. A new venue? A new date? Oh no!

Or, it can be read as a story of how two young women are introduced to the nuances of mature, adult, relationships (Notice that Candice Bergen seems to be playing the voice not only of reason, but also experience.)

Ultimately, its seems that there just isn’t enough evidence to support most off-the-cuff generalizations about this film (including my own). Consider the consequences of a plot shift: what if both brides calmly and rationally discussed their options, and with empathy for each other, decided to both forgo a plaza wedding? It would probably make a terrible movie, but more importantly, I worry that that would reinforce a different stereotype–that women are gentle creatures who would not even stand up for something they dearly wanted.

Which, of course, is part of what makes these of stereotypes so perverse! Women are either ego-centric bitches who pull out all the stops to get their own way, or they are doormats that willingly die a martyr’s death to their own desires.

And I am very sick of the way weddings and brides are portrayed. I didn’t dream about my wedding all my life (I didn’t even want to ever get married until I met my now-husband), I didn’t feel like a princess or like it was “my special day”, I didn’t obsess about how I would look, I didn’t spend huge amounts of money and I had a WONDERFUL wedding – at the courthouse, with the required two witnesses, in a black dress after I proposed to my now-husband as a semi-joke while walking down the street. As you can probably tell, it still makes me angry the way that weddings and brides are portrayed in movies.